Path to the Celestial Realm

A broken stone slab blocked the way ahead. The ancient characters carved upon it were vigorous and forceful, each stroke like an iron hook gouging silver—actually reading: 'The Path to the Celestial Realm.' This truly surprised Xiao Chen.

He had exhausted great effort trying to open a door to the Celestial Realm, but all attempts had failed. He never imagined that in the sky above this wasteland, such a secret place existed. Truly, when the mountains and rivers end and all roads seem lost, a new village appears in the shade of willows.

Xiao Chen strode forward, wondering if this mysterious place could bring him a pleasant surprise.

This passage was entirely carved through chaos. On both sides, chaos surged and mist swirled, with bright chains refined from stars adorning the path—a very dreamlike scene.

After traveling about a thousand li, a massive piece of chaotic stone blocked the road ahead.

Something was suspicious. The road ahead seemed sealed. The chaotic stone was carved with all kinds of formations, exuding a mysterious power.

However, because such an immense time had passed, the formations had clearly failed, for many places were broken. The power of the ages is the most ruthless; even divine formations cannot resist it and are gradually ground away.

Xiao Chen held a war sword and gently waved it. Sword-light spewed out, and the giant stone ahead shattered instantly, scattering to both sides with a crash.

"Eh?" Xiao Chen was somewhat surprised. The area ahead looked like a cage. Divine iron bars still blazed with radiance, clearly refined into Ancestral God weapons, sealing off the region ahead. Between each pair of divine iron bars, divine light flowed, still dazzling to this day.

"Could it really be a cage? Are there still prisoners locked up here?" This struck Xiao Chen as odd. This place was clearly marked as leading to the Celestial Realm; how could there be a cage-like location?

Xiao Chen extended his divine sense to investigate but sensed no life fluctuations. After thinking about it, he relented. Even the Otherworld Stone Man, as powerful as he was, had been sealed by the giant palace for endless ages and ultimately turned to dust—let alone others.

"Break!" Xiao Chen merged with the divine diagram and in an instant rushed through the gaps between the divine iron bars. Although he met great resistance, the divine light could not truly stop him.

After all, it had been too long. Even if it had been perfectly preserved, the power of the cage had long since diminished.

This cage was wide and long, built entirely within the passage. After walking a thousand zhang, he had still not reached the end.

Along the way, Xiao Chen saw several broken Ancestral God weapons and spots of dried blood. That was the blood of so-called undying eternal Ancestral Gods, but now it had turned into black traces, having lost its radiance and bright color. Under the power of the ages, it had all returned to the mundane.

Every broken Ancestral God weapon was stained with spots of blood, vividly recording the brutality of that ancient battle.

Just then, a humanoid corpse blocked the road ahead. It was a dried corpse, flesh withered like a mummy, looking like a fierce ghost.

Xiao Chen walked closer and looked carefully. This was a female Ancestral God. In life, she must have been graceful and beautiful, but now she looked like this—truly a red-skinned skeleton.

It was hard to find any valuable clues. When Xiao Chen circled around her, the airflow stirred, and the seemingly intact dried corpse suddenly shattered with a bang. It was so decayed that it could not withstand any impact, turning into a pile of bone-dust.

Without doubt, those who reached the Ancestral God realm were unparalleled geniuses, figures who could look down on an entire civilization's history. They must have had their own twisting stories, but none of that mattered anymore. In the end, everything returned to dust, and the earth returned to earth.

After walking another several hundred zhang, he was finally about to reach the end. Xiao Chen saw five more dried corpses. When he passed by, they also turned to dust with the wind, vanishing completely.

Six Ancestral Gods from ancient times had been suppressed here, all perishing. Not one left behind any valuable information.

When Xiao Chen reached the end, he was surprised to see a Stone Man sitting cross-legged there, his entire body covered in cracks. Clearly, his divine consciousness had long since perished, having lost all life aura. "Could this really be a Stone Man?!"

Xiao Chen quickly noticed that this was not a true Stone-Man king. If you looked closely, his stone body was not that solid. Below both knees, there was no complete petrification; his flesh was withered and clinging to white bones.

When Xiao Chen approached, although this Stone Man's body did not turn to ash like the previous ones, it still shattered completely with a crash.

On the chaotic stone slab behind him, a line of deeply carved words remained. When they were carved, the writer seemed to be in great grief and indignation. Through the fervor of the carving, one could feel the writer's emotions at the time.

Xiao Chen could not possibly recognize the script, but after scanning it with his divine sense, he captured a fragmentary remnant imprint of the ancient carver. Amplified by divine power, an angry voice echoed through the passage:

"The Celestial Realm is not to be trusted..."

These words were deafening, filled with boundless grief and indignation.

Xiao Chen was greatly shocked. This news from a hundred million years ago had only now reached him, and it was this momentous. Even though that war had long since become history, it still made his heart tremble.

The Celestial Realm from which he had sought reinforcements did not seem so glorious!

This intelligence was extremely important. Xiao Chen used the great power of the divine diagram to carefully capture the residual imprints left in this cage passage, but in the end, he only obtained blurry, imprecise information.

This place could indeed communicate with the Celestial Realm!

Back when the Otherworld fought the Wasteland, something had changed in the Celestial Realm. What exactly had changed could not be known, but from that line "the Celestial Realm is not to be trusted," it seemed very unfavorable to the Wasteland.

However, the Wasteland seemed to have prepared for this long ago. The incomplete Stone Man who guarded this place used the sealing ancient scroll left by the five Stone-Man kings to seal this place off.

Too much time had passed. Xiao Chen could only capture this one piece of valuable information; nothing else could be obtained.

As for why the several Ancestral Gods had died in this cage-like passage, it was hard to say for certain.

Some things were destined to remain unexplained. Not every matter would have a final result. Many things would silently vanish into the long river of history. Moreover, relatively speaking, this was already an insignificant matter.

"Clang!" Xiao Chen hacked at the giant stone ahead with his war sword. But suddenly, an ancient scroll flickered, and a vast diagram appeared ahead. Within it were magnificent mountains and rivers, a land picturesque and grand. Five Stone Men with different expressions stood side by side—some silent as deep abysses, some with battle intent reaching the clouds, some with an overbearing dominance spanning a thousand ages... They were exactly the five inimical Stone-Man kings Xiao Chen had seen in the giant palace!

This diagram locked the path ahead, blocking the main road to the Celestial Realm.

Xiao Chen wanted to try to peel it open. But after a hundred million years of time, this ancient scroll still possessed boundless, unfathomable divine power; it could not be budged in the slightest, firmly sealing this place.

This was absolutely a heavy treasure. It was probably even more mysterious and powerful than the Demon Diagram sealed by the Otherworld above the Primal Ancient Village.

Xiao Chen did not want to destroy this treasure by brute force. He knew that if he supplemented it with divine power, this ancient scroll might shine again.

In fact, by the end, even if Xiao Chen wanted to forcefully shatter the divine diagram, he could not; it was simply unbreakable.

Finally, he merged with the divine diagram, and the imprints of the five kings within his heart emerged. Only then did the magnificent mountains-and-rivers scroll ahead flicker with extraordinary light.

A flash of light, and the ancient scroll drifted lightly down. Xiao Chen caught it in his hands. Although it was as light as a feather, it felt as if he were holding millions of sacred mountains; from a spiritual level, the weight was unfathomable.

This supreme treasure, left by five peerless kings, was definitely a treasure among treasures. He believed that in the future, it would surely shake the heavens once more!

Shortly after the ancient scroll left the chaotic stone, a sudden blast of yin wind swept through the passage, cold and chilling.

The bodies of the six Ancestral Gods, which had earlier turned to ash, suddenly re-formed into dried corpses and stood up.

The six—both male and female—their withered bodies swelled, as if flesh were about to be reborn!

How could this be?

Xiao Chen felt something eerie was afoot. The Stone Man before him, whose body had shattered, showed no change. How could the six Ancestral God corpses, which had completely turned to ash, re-form and be reborn?

Something was deeply sinister!

A gust of yin wind stirred, and the chaotic stone that had held the ancient scroll instantly shattered. The road ahead was in sight, but the cold, dark, eerie air was blowing from ahead.

The bodies of the six Ancestral Gods were now completely plump, without any sign of withering. Flesh had grown back, but it lacked luster—no different from a dead person's skin.

How could this happen?

Even a Stone Man had perished, body and soul extinguished. How could they be reborn? Could they be stronger than a Stone Man?

Xiao Chen was on high alert. The abnormal signaled danger; this place was filled with unknown perils.

"Grrr... Grrr..."

The sound of grinding teeth emerged, chilling to the bone. The six Ancestral God-level beings were grinding their teeth like demons, their expressions ferocious and wild—including the beautiful female Ancestral God, her face almost twisted.

Their eyelids trembled, but they did not open several times.

A heart-rending howl suddenly rang through the passage. The female Ancestral God let out a scream so terrifying that it made one's scalp tingle and a chill run down the spine.

Then the other five Ancestral Gods also let out equally gruesome ghostly shrieks, enough to make one's hair stand on end. That was absolutely not a sound a normal creature should make—more terrifying than a fierce ghost.

The passage instantly became as cold as an ice cellar, as if they had fallen into the Asura Hell.

The bodies of the six Ancestral Gods showed none of the traits of normal living beings. Their expressions were savage, constantly grinding their teeth and shrieking, more sinister and terrifying than the most ferocious evil ghosts.

Though their eyes had not opened, their noses twitched. In the end, they charged together at Xiao Chen. Yin wind surged, and the passage became bone-chillingly cold.

Although Xiao Chen was merged with the divine diagram, he did not want to recklessly fight these ghostly things. He summoned the half stone skull and instantly concealed himself, vanishing without a trace.

The six ice-cold, sinister, terrifying Ancestral God corpses—faces twisted, white teeth bared, hair disheveled—spun around in place a few times, then let out a fierce howl and all charged forward.

Xiao Chen followed closely behind, wanting to see what was strange about them and where they would rush.

These six could regenerate flesh and blood; it made him feel it was beyond belief. He could not rest easy without understanding this.

The chaotic passage ahead grew narrower. Yin wind howled like snowflakes dancing, like steel knives splitting the air.

After flying a full several dozen li, a faint light shone in ahead, and the yin wind grew even fiercer.

An exit!

Had he reached the Celestial Realm?

The narrow exit was just wide enough for one person to pass. The six Ancestral God corpses scrambled to rush out of the passage. Yin wind howled, black cold mist filled the air.

When Xiao Chen charged out, he just happened to see a black demonic aura, like a giant arched bridge several tens of thousands of li away, spanning across the sky and reaching all the way here, reeling in the six Ancestral God corpses.

Rolling black mist surged, rising to the heavens and vanishing in an instant. All the eerie yin aura suddenly disappeared.

This was all coming from tens of thousands of li away! Xiao Chen felt very uneasy. That was definitely a terrifying existence. Even from such a distance, it had sensed the six corpses' aura and summoned them. At the very least, it was a Supreme Ancestral God.

Perhaps even more terrifying! Because these six were figures from before the Wasteland's destruction. The one who could summon their decayed bodies was surely an ancient relic that had lived since the beginning of time.

"Could it be that these six were incarnations of someone? The main body has still not died, so when the six saw the light of day again, they instantly regenerated and returned to the main body?" Or perhaps the six had always been ghostly creatures, lost in the passage by a powerful being in ancient times?

In an instant, Xiao Chen had many associations. No matter the case, that person was certainly no good, definitely an extremely powerful existence.

After the towering yin wind and black mist vanished, Xiao Chen had a chance to look at his surroundings.

"Have I really come to the Celestial Realm?"

Xiao Chen felt a dreamlike sensation. Ahead was a beautiful lake, blue and translucent, intoxicating, like a giant blue diamond set into the earth. The hundred white swans that had taken flight in fright had now landed back on it.

The scenery around the lake was picturesque—vines twined and draped, emitting refreshing floral scents. Nearby, fine trees stood lush and green, like a spotless pure land.

In the distance, celestial mountains drifted in the mist, auspicious clouds swirled, and faintly, one could see phoenixes dancing.

Most importantly, the spiritual energy of this world was abundant, lingering on the surface of the body, forming motes of light that automatically gathered inward. A deep breath immediately made one feel refreshed.

Xiao Chen was more than half certain that he might truly have come to the Celestial Realm.

Emerging from the chaotic passage to see these beautiful surroundings, Xiao Chen felt no relief. Having just arrived in this world, he had witnessed a black yin wind rushing from tens of thousands of li away to roll up the six Ancestral God corpses left behind a hundred million years ago—this kind of casual deterrence was not weak!

The Primordial Celestial Realm was a complete blank to Xiao Chen; he knew nothing about it.

"Death is not the end; perhaps it is only the beginning." These words had echoed in his ears before. They were left behind by an Ancestral God who had glimpsed the secrets of the Celestial Realm.

"My physical form has not been destroyed." Xiao Chen walked out from the divine diagram and strode forward along the lakeshore.

He swept his powerful divine sense a thousand li in an instant, but it was very disappointing. He only sensed some spirit birds and auspicious beasts, not a single cultivator.

"Wood! Wood! You're back!" Just then, Xiao Chen suddenly heard this voice.

He turned to look and saw a colorful flower parrot perched on a bush by the lakeshore, calling to him. With a flutter, it beat its bright wings and flew over, completely unafraid of strangers, landing on a vine cluster near Xiao Chen.

"Wood! Wood! Don't you recognize me?"

Xiao Chen was truly astonished. This bird seemed very special.